Chapter 26
Pioneer 3-DX

This UObject has been created to drive the Pioneer 3-DX robot. It uses the Aria/Arnl manufacturer library.

26.1 Getting started

Prerequisites:

• Have a Pioneer P3-DX robot with linux or any linux distribution with MobileSim installed (http://robots.mobilerobots.com/wiki/MobileSim)
• Have urbi-sdk and Arnl library installed (http://robots.mobilerobots.com/wiki/ARNL,_SONARNL_and_MOGS)

Installation:

• Untar you archive file
• Move in your archive and create a config.mk file where variables UPATH and ARNLPATH are defined. For example

   
  UPATH=/usr/local/gostai  # path for your urbi-sdk directory 
  ARNLPATH=/usr/local/Arnl # path for your arnl directory
        
  

• Enter ”make” to compile

Running:

• If you are working with the simulator MobileSim, make sure it is running
• Enter ‘make run’
• You can now join the urbi server with ‘telnet IPYouNeed 54000’

26.2 How to use Pioneer 3-DX robot

The following objects are defined to support the Pioneer 3-DX Robot. Please note that when loaded, ‘p3dx.u’ also defines the robot variable to enforce the conformance with the Gostai Standard Robotics API (Section 22).

Below, we denote read-only slots with ‘r’, and read-write slots with ‘rw’.

26.2.1 P3dx

• robotType 
  Type of the robot (r).
• name 
  Name of the robot (r).
• model 
  Model of the robot (r).
• serial 
  Serial number of the robot (r).
• body 
  The P3dx.body (Section 26.2.2) class.
• go(d) 
  Cover d meters.
• turn(r) 
  Turn r radians.
• stop 
  Stop any movement.
• moveTo(list) 
  Try to plan a path to position list == [x,y,th] in absolute frame. mapFileName must have a valid value and motorsLoad must be 1.

26.2.2 P3dx.body

• load 
  Enable the motors (rw)
• wheel[left].speed 
  Left wheel translation speed (r)
• wheel[right].speed 
  Right wheel translation speed (r)
• safetyDistanceMin 
  Moving is not allowed if any obstacle is closer (rw)
• safetyDistanceMax 
  Speed is not restrained if all obstacles

26.2.3 P3dx.body.odometry

• x 
  Odometric x position (r)
• y 
  Odometric y position (r)
• z 
  Always 0 (r)
• yaw 
  Odometric yaw angle (r)
• coveredDistance 
  Total distance covered (r)
• coveredAngle 
  Total yaw angle covered (r)
• position 
  List for [x,y,z,yaw] in absolute frame (rw)

26.2.4 P3dx.body.sonar

• load 
  Enable the sonars (rw).
• [front][left][left].val 
  value for the front/left/left sonar (r)
• [front][left][front].val 
  value for the front/left/front sonar (r)
• [front][front][left].val 
  value for the front/front/left sonar (r)
• [front][front][right].val 
  value for the front/front/right sonar (r)
• [front][right][front].val 
  value for the front/right/front sonar (r)
• [front][right][right].val 
  value for the front/right/right sonar (r)
• [right][front].val 
  value for the right/front sonar (r)
• [right][back].val 
  value for the right/back sonar (r)
• [back][right][right].val 
  value for the back/right/right sonar (r)
• [back][right][back].val 
  value for the back/right/back sonar (r)
• [back][front][right].val 
  value for the back/front/right sonar (r)
• [back][front][left].val 
  value for the back/front/left sonar (r)
• [back][left][back].val 
  value for the back/left/back sonar (r)
• [back][left][left].val 
  value for the back/left/left sonar (r)
• [left][back].val 
  value for the left/back sonar (r)
• [left][front].val 
  value for the right/front sonar (r)

26.2.5 P3dx.body.laser

• load 
  Connect to sick laser (rw)
• val 
  181 distances given by the laser (r)
• lastCaptureTimestamp 
  Last time laser read its values (r)
• angleMin 
  Angle of the last value in the robot frame (r)
• angleMax 
  Angle of the first value in the robot frame (r)
• resolution 
  Angle between to laser values (r)
• laserDistanceMin 
  Minimum distance the laser can return (r)
• laserDistanceMax 
  Maximum distance the laser can return (r)

26.2.6 P3dx.body.camera

• load 
  Connect the camera mechanical aspect (rw)
• yaw 
  Yaw value for camera (rw)
• pitch 
  Pitch value for camera (rw)
• zoom 
  Zoom value for camera (rw)

26.2.7 P3dx.body.x

• speed 
  Translation speed (rw)

26.2.8 P3dx.body.yaw

• speed 
  Rotation speed (rw) are further (rw)

26.2.9 P3dx.planner

• mapFileName 
  Path to a map file. Setting a string value will also try to start a localization task. laserLoad must be 1. This may fail if :
  • the file is unknown;
  • the robot cannot localize itself on the map (the initial position of the robot SHOULD be equal to the Home position inside the map file).

  Value ”” deletes the previous map and stops the localization task.

  At any time, it might be set to ”” if the localization task fails.

• pathPlanningEvent 
  Event emitted when path planning ends (r) with first parameter equal to :

  0 
  if the path planning fails;

  1 
  if it succeeds;

  2 
  if it is canceled for any reason (new path, manual motion commands, change of map).

• locFailureEvent 
  Event emit-ed if localization fails. In this case mapFileName is set to ””

26.2.10 P3dx.body.battery

• voltage 
  Current voltage (r)

26.3 Mobility modes

Three modes are available in order to control the Pioneer 3-DX mobility:

• Use go and turn to choose a distance and an angle.
• Use speedDelta and speedAlpha to choose translation and rotation speeds.
• Use moveTo to select a goal on a map that must be reached thank to path planning. Note that distMin and distMax have no impact in this mode.

26.4 About units

Every physical quantity is in SI units (m, s, rad, ...).